Please find the range of topics for discussion at the Clean Pacific Roundtable 2018, helping us on our Path to a Pollution-free Pacific
Boosting eco-tourism through proper waste management
There is a growing concern from the tourism industry on the fate of the environment as a result of public littering and illegal dumping along the recreational beaches and hiking trails in the Pacific. This may impact appeal of the Pacific islands as a holiday destination which in turn will significantly impact the economic base of countries. Tourism, apart from agriculture and remittances constitute a greater source of income in the Pacific Region. With evident links to human and environmental health, waste management can be a likely contributor to either the growth or failure of tourism. The discussion can open up opportunities to put waste management within the perspective of eco-tourism development. For more information please visit http://islands.unep.ch/d96-20a3.htm or http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7714e/w7714e06.htm
Coordinated actions to combat marine debris
Marine debris including plastics and microplastics slipping into marine waters from land-based pollution has been a hot topic in recent international meetings. The impacts of marine litter have become very evident in the Pacific with a number of studies revealing significant ingestion and entanglement impacting on fish resources. Urgent actions to minimise sources and mitigate impacts have been called for by the international and regional community. A number of initiatives have been implemented by Pacific island countries to combat this issue. It will be very useful if these countries or communities taking the lead in this respect can share challenges, lessons and experiences in addressing this issue. For more information on this issue please visit the following: https://www.sprep.org/attachments/Publications/FactSheet/Oceans/marine-debris-microplastics-pollution.pdf or https://www.marinelittersolutions.com/about-marine-litter/what-is-marine-litter/ or https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/marinedebris.html
Enhancing proper management of hazardous wastes
The need for enhanced Pacific capacity to properly collect, handle, store and transport hazardous wastes from the point of view of health and safety and transboundary movement compliance has been recognised by two huge donor partners, UN Environment through the Global Environment Facility Pacific Alliance Sustainability Unintentionally Produced Persistent Organic Pollutants Reduction Project and EU through the 10th European Development Fund PacWaste Project. Both projects will be completed during the 1st semester of 2018. It will be very valuable if successes, challenges and lessons can be shared with the Roundtable. This will pave the way for connectivity with the next GEFPAS and EDF11 (PacWaste Plus) funding cycle. For more information on this issue please visit the following: https://www.sprep.org/project/pacific-hazardous-waste-project or https://www.sprep.org/pacwaste or https://www.sprep.org/gefpaspops or http://www.environment.gov.au/protection/hazardous-waste/conventions
Ensuring more informed decisions through waste data management
More evident-based information generated and processed from routine data collection will assist in improving and sustaining successful initiatives in waste and pollution management in Pacific. The underlying principle of “better management when measured” will provide more informed decisions. Efforts to improve implementation of this in the Pacific Region prompted the proposed development of a Waste Monitoring System to capture, process and disseminate vital information that will feed into future projects and activities and ensure effectiveness and efficiency and greater likelihood of successful initiatives. Discussions surrounding this topic may also feed into the regional objectives of J-PRISM2, PacWaste Plus and the Inform projects. For more information on this issue please visit: https://www.sprep.org/pacwaste or https://www.sprep.org/j-prism-2/home
Further enhancement of regional capacity in waste management
While there have been a great deal of time, money and effort invested in enhancing the capacity of the waste sector in the region through technical assistance from partners and donors, the sustainability of knowledge uptake is still uncertain. The intention of the session is to explore mechanisms to attract more skills into the waste sector. With the involvement of the academe in the Roundtable such as the regional university (USP) and other academic institutions in the Pacific region, there may be opportunities arising in terms of further enhancement of human capacity in the region’s waste sector. For more information on this issue please visit: https://www.sprep.org/pacwaste or https://www.sprep.org/j-prism-2/home
Planning and responding to disaster wastes
The past historical events which affected the Pacific, such as Tropical Cyclones Winston and Pam triggered countries to consider a more planned approach to managing disaster wastes. Vanuatu’s Bouffa Landfill was filled to capacity with incoming disaster wastes. Recovery efforts were hampered by the inadequacy of coordinated actions to remove debris on affected areas apart from interrupted delivery of waste services. Although support from donor countries is forthcoming in the aftermath of these events, utilisation of available resources need to be optimised to facilitate and ensure greater recovery. There is an ongoing initiative to develop a Pacific Regional Disaster Waste Management Guideline through support from Kyoto University building up on the Fiji guidelines which was an output of a previous project on Integrated Climate Change Adaptation Initiative funded through the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. A discussion on the essence of more planned approaches to disaster waste management will encourage countries to plan and respond more appropriately to disaster waste issues.For more information on this issue please visit: https://www.sprep.org/news/disaster-waste-spotlight-clean-pacific-roundtable or https://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/110603.html
Regional coordination in recycling
Through consultation, countries have indicated preference to initiate recycling activities although there is a bit of reluctance due to the high logistical costs and unprofitable business which is not attractive to both the public and the private sector. With the involvement of the donor-driven Pacific Regional Infrastructure Facility in resource circulation initiatives and the potential attendance and involvement of the private sector including the shipping sector in the Roundtable, this can provide a good opportunity for more concrete discussions on the likelihood of more coordinated recycling activities in the region. For more information on this issue please visit: http://www.pacific-steel.com/recycling/ or https://www.cityofpacificgrove.org/living/green-pg/solid-waste-recycling/recycling